Having taken a short rest after their battle with the skeletal warhorses. The party continues on in their search for treasure in the Gost family crypt.
They find themselves in a long eerie hallway that ends at another set of metal doors. These doors are made of iron-plated wood. Each features a relief carving of a wolf rampant. Two stone statues depicting nobly dressed humans, a woman in stately robes and a man in armor holding a sword an shield, stand in niches a few meters before the door. After investigating these statues the party finds that it seems to be possible to insert a cylindrical object into the hand of the female statue.
Before they manage to investigate further, a glowing blue female ghost phases through the door at the end of the hallway. She seems to be asking for help. The party turn their attention to the ghost and try to calm her down. She introduces herself as an adventurer called Perdita. She entered this crypt a few days ago together with her sister while following a treasure map, just like the party. She remembers seeing some rats, and everything went dark for her after that. She later woke up as a ghost and started roaming these halls in search for her sister. The party agrees to help her and ask where she died, as that might be a clue. But Perdita says she can't remember. She does tell the party that she is able to open a secret door behind the statue of the nobly dressed man behind them. She insists that she's not going through the door herself though because she fears the things that are behind it, rats.
The party decide to check out the room behind the iron plated door first. The find themselves in another winding hallway and they quickly spot something odd about the floor. There seem to be grooves in the floor, making it look like there is some sort of other platform laid inside the floor tiles surrounding it. The party decide this might be a trap and start making their way across the tiny sidewalks. Quertex manages to make it to the other side without issue due to his size, and so does Punko as he is large enough to be able to hold himself in place by touching the ceiling. Skálmöld and Cracuta make their way across, back to back, providing support to eachother by pushing against the walls, counting in a beat as to go in sync.
At the other side they find themselves in another coffin-shaped chamber, this one wider to accommodate the two stone sarcophagi laid out on a raised dais to the south. A large column at the end of the room displays a portrait of a smirking noble lord. Two ornate sword hang below the portrait. In between the two coffins there also stands a statue resembling a suit of armor. Cracuta quickly decides to take a look at the coffins and starts pushing the lid to check if he would be able to open it. He starts pushing harder and harder as a loud booming voice fills the room.
"There shall be a reckoning for those who deign steal from this noble household!"
They see the noble in the portrait start to laugh as it detaches itself from the column, seemingly alive it starts to float in mid air together with the two blades that were hanging below it. The party hear the crackling of stone as they also see the statue come to life, unsheathing its blade and pointing it at the party. Combat breaks out and Cracuta starts feeling something sharp poking his forehead. The rest of the party can see a crown of thorns form around Cracuta's head, as his pupils turn white he turns his blade towards his friends. They quickly deem the portrait as the culprit behind this spell and start throwing all their attacks at the smirking lord. Skálmöld manages to get the final blow on the guardian portrait, cutting it apart. Cracuta, being freed from the crown, attempts to bite and swipe at the statue multiple times. But to no avail. In the middle of combat Quertex fumbles as he tries to shoot at his enemies, missing his shot and dropping his bolts all over the floor, down the stairs. Punko comes to his aid and hands him a few bolts as they destroy the animated statue and one of the flying swords with their fire magic. The last flying swords gets shattered into pieces as Skálmöld and Cracuta swipe at it with their weapons.
Having dispatched the guardians of the tomb, the party starts looking around the room for treasure. The open up the two coffins but find them to be completely empty. Not even one single bone can be found within. What they do find is a ceremonial baton, hanging on the column where the portrait used to be. Before heading back to the statues in the hallway, Cracuta puts on his Mask of the Undead and notices a faint but large in scale aura coming from below the ground, in the hallway they just passed. Quertex tries to pick up a large piece of stone form the defeated statue but fails as he tumbles down the stairs. Punko sees this happening and comes to his aid once again, picking up the stone as the party heads back to the hallway. They drop the stone on the strange partition of floor and it crumbles down, falling into a pit below. The party can hear shambling and groans, and when they look down into the pit they can see a dozen of mindless zombies standing at the bottom. The party manages to make their way back over the pit, albeit a bit more fearful than the first time they crossed.
Arriving back at the statue of the noble woman, they insert the ceremonial baton into her hand. The statue starts to turn clockwise, revealing a hidden passage behind it. Following another small passage, the party enter a small room with multiple sarcophagi lined up inside of it. They attempt to open one of them as Quertex suddenly finds himself enveloped by some sort of mist. A sharp sting hits him in the shoulder as he starts feeling someting being sucked out of him. The party panics and run back into the main hall, taking out the baton from the statues hand as the passage closes itself again. Not knowing what just happened and also not keen to find out, they ask Perdita to open the secret passage behind the opposite statue. Perdita sticks her hands through the door, making sure her head doesn't also peek through, as she opens the door. Asking once again to look for her lost sister.
The party finds themselves in a dark hallway with broken down coffins inside of two alcoves in the north. The stench of death and decay greets them around the bend. Dozens of reats are feasting on corpses that litter the ground. Not sure if they should go further the party starts to argue. During the discussion a figure jumps out from behind the corner and slashes Skálmöld in the back with a blade. The figure resembles a female humanoid, but with the face of a rat, gray fur, and claws. The figure yells at the party to stay away and leave her alone. Thinking this might be Perdita's lost sister they try to convince her that they are here to help. But as they are doing this Cracuta suddenly feels a sharp sting in his arm as he is now fully covered in mist. Panic ensues once again as they try to hurry past the mist. Punko, thinking this might be a being called a vampiric mist, tries to put it to sleep with a spell and succeeds. The mist slowly floats down to the floor as it starts to disperse a little. Most of the party make it to the other end of the hallway by jumping over the sleeping mist, but Cracuta drops to the ground as he attempts to take a run up, falling face first into the mist, waking it back up. The wererat, confused by what is happening, decides to join the group of strangers for now as she uses Cracuta as a stepping stone to also jump over the mist. Cracuta gets bitten once again and feels some of his life force drain from his body. Regular weapons didn't seem to have any effect, but the party did manage to seemingly destroy the mist with magic. Before heading back they go to take a look at the room where the rats once were. Together with many torn up, half eaten bodies they find a body resembling Perdita next to the corpse of something that looks alot like the rat woman they just met.
The wererat woman has found herself in the corridor where Perdita was waiting by name. The party notices her trying to cover her face and turning away from the ghost. Perdita approaches the rat woman asking her if she is Suri, her sister. The wererat yells at Perdita to not come any closer, that she has no idea what she's talking about. But Perdita does not listen. She phases straight through the wererat's body and turns around, looking straight at the rat-like appearance of her sister. Knowing that Perdita has a mortal fear of rats, Suri once again runs away from her. But Perdita just stays there, sitting on the floor with a bright smile on her face.
"I'm glad you're safe."
She says, as the ghostly form of Perdita slowly starts to vanish. Suri just breaks out in tears after witnessing this, shedding tears for the sister who still loved her even looking as she does currently. As the tears roll down her cheecks, the party see her transforming back into a young human lady.
After giving Suri some time, the party ask her about what just happened and tell her to take a look at herself. Looking at her hands she can once again see her normal fingers instead of sharpened claws. Still with tears in her eyes, she starts thanking the party for all they've done for her and her sister. She starts explaining how the two of them come to be in the possession of a treasure map. After following the clues they found themselves inside of this crypt, they managed to sneak past some scary skeletons and found this secret passage. But once inside they were met by a Wererat who ambushed them. Perdita, who she knew had been deeply scared of vermin since they were kids, dropped to the ground unconsciousat the first sight of this wererat, hitting her head against one of the broken coffins, killing her instantly. Suri managed to defeat the wererat, but not after being bit by it and turning into one as well a few hours later. Suri had noticed the ghostly appearance of her sister floating around the crypt looking for her, but was she was too afraid to let Perdita see her looking like the things she fears most, and decided to just hide from her.
Suri asks the party what she should do now. They tell her she could stay at their new mansion and tell her she could go there right now as they explore the rest of the crypt. Suri graciously accepts this offer but also decides to stay with the party for now, telling them she can hold her own in a fight.
Moving back to the room where they first encountered the mist, the party find a hidden button in the wall that when pressed opens up a new passage. Hearing the sounds of two men talking to eachother and the clanging of plates the sneak up to the entrance at the end of the corridor to take a peak at what is happening.
They see a large room with what looks like two men having dinner and two sleeping wolves in it. The far wall of this room bears metal double doors. The party heads back to plan their approach and seeing how they are in the majority the decide it best to try and intimidate the two men into giving up their treasure. This fails horribly as the two men start to demand and explanation. Not wanting to give in to their demands, Skálmöld shoots one of them in the shoulder, after which the two men start to slowly shift into werewolves.
Before a real fight manages to break out, what looks like blood starts flowing out from underneath the double doors. They swing open as the two werewolves make way for the figure emerging out from the bloody doors. A large dark skinned man with glowing red eyes, dressed in noble apparel stands in front of them. He grabs one of the werewolves by the throat and raises him off the ground without any effort and ask him: "Did I not tell you what to do should this situation arise again?". He throws the werewolf to the ground, disappears, and then reappears behind Punko in the blink of an eye. He grabs Punko by the throat and pushes him up against the wall. He takes out the treasure map that was sticking out from his bag, unfurls it, and takes a good look at it. After a loud sigh he mentions that this is the tenth group this month that have dared entered his domain. The man burns the treasure map with a snap of his fingers, releases Punko, and teleports next to Cracuta, towering over him. The man takes a good look at the shifter and even gives him a sniff, calling Cracuta "an interesting one". The imposing man walks back into the small pool of blood that is now starting to form on the floor and gives the party an offer. Either they help him find the people responsible for making these fake treasure maps, or they die. The party decides this is definitely the kind of person they should bargain with and ask what else would be in it for them would they decide to help. The man laughs and applauds their lack of concern about their own lives and introduces himself as Artor Morlin, one of the Masked Lords of Waterdeep. And explains to the party how much value having him on their side brings. The party agree to help Artor, and he gives them the parting gift of telling them that all these treasure maps have had the stench of salt water all over them.
Glad to have made it out of this situation alive, the party head back to the surface. Once there they once again meet the groundskeeper Adhamh who is quite amazed that they actually managed to find their way out again in one piece. He asks them if they would be able to help him with his sheep problem now. But the party tells him they will come back at a later day to take a look. Convinced this is a lie, Adhamh walks away dejected.
On their way back home, the party notices a dead sheep lying in some bushes. The go to investigate and Cracuta notices that what killed this sheep are humanoid bite marks. Not canine, what the groundskeeper believed to be the culprit. Nearby they do find canine foottracks though and as they follow them them find themselves an overgrowth close to the outside walls. Below a tree, surrounded by pushed they find a large dog with a half torn collar and a rabbit in its mouth, looking over two pups. The party then decide to head back to the groundskeeper to ask him about this dog but before they get too far they start hearing the desperate crying and barking of the dog they just found. Running over to them the find two Ghouls attacking them. The party makes quick work of the undead threat and decide to take the dogs home after treating their wounds.